Spreading Sankofa

Abstract

Epistemicide is the devaluing, silencing, or annihilation of knowledge and encompasses systematic knowledge destruction enacted through accumulation of epistemic injustices. Considering prior epistemicide research in LIS––in conjunction with critical, historical, and philosophical perspectives of technology––this paper examines how epistemicide occurs by and through digital technologies, constituting what we call digital epistemicide. The social, cultural, and historical epistemic injustices enabled through technology––and the proliferation of epistemic injustices in digital worlds––demands a theorization of how epistemicide occurs in digital contexts. By considering elements of power, domination, and control in relation to digital technologies, we contribute to a critically informed meta-language for describing digital epistemicide. With concern and care for the next generation of library and information professionals, we call for an enactment of Sankofa Interventions. These include everyday dialogues, practices, policies, actions, or critical reflections that engage with historical narratives from the past, absent from discourses of the present, in a manner that emulates the notion of Sankofa. The enactment of Sankofa interventions to mitigate digital epistemicide, such as reparative storytelling and other critical digital pedagogical practices, requires both ongoing attention to digitizing records that have been left behind and likewise ensuring that digital worlds are well maintained to support the preservation and sharing of knowledge.

Keywords

• Digital Epistemicide
• Sankofa Intervention
• Epistemicide
• Epistemic Injustice
• Neutrality